1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a new slide property of display elements in mobile electronic devices, particularly mobile phones. This feature combines the advantages of flip-type/foldable phones and landscape type phones.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Mobile phones of the so-called flip-type, also known as foldable or clamshell phones, have become rather popular recently. There are certain advantages associated with these phones. The overall area or footprint, in the closed position, is reduced compared to conventional “brick type” or monoblock phones. Also, the display is protected against scratching and the like in the closed position, as it is not exposed, but located on the inside of the housing parts folded together. In the folded open position these phones can provide a larger area for arranging control elements or a big display compared to conventional monoblock phones. Also the distance between microphone and speaker is usually larger than with brick type phones, which can help in enhancing the speech quality, as it usually is better suited for positioning microphone and speaker in the close vicinity of the mouth and ear of a user than in conventional phones.
Other types or form factors of mobile phones have become widely used as well. Particularly in the new gaming consoles, gaming enabled mobile phones like the Nokia® N-Gage™, the landscape form factor is used. This provides the possibility to position the display in the center of the respective device, whereas the control elements, i.e. a keypad, a 4-way rocker key and the like can be positioned on the left and right sides of the housing. In this manner the user is enabled to hold the device in both hands and simultaneously operate for example the 4-way rocker key with the right hand and the other controls with the left hand.
This concept is also applicable to phones having a full keyboard, like in the Nokia cell phone 6810/6820, for giving the user the possibility to type emails, SMS or other messages more easily. While this form factor is well suited for gaming and writing messages it is not as comfortable for speech connections as other (portrait) mobile phones, as such landscape phones must be held in a position rotated 90° in relation to the gaming/writing position. Among other things this entails certain problems associated with the location/orientation of the standard phone keypad or at least the respective key labels, which may cause a certain discomfort for a user. Furthermore this form factor is not suitable for single-handed operation of the respective device, e.g. browsing through the phonebook or reading incoming messages, whereas conventional monoblock and foldable phones do not or at least not suitably enable a landscape usage mode.
The object of the present invention is therefore to provide a variable operating surface for mobile electronic devices or mobile phones combining the advantages of the above mentioned foldable phones and the landscape type phones.